LIVERMORE FALLS – The fire station and Engine No. 3 were damaged after the truck hit the wall of the station as it was being backed in, fire Chief Ken Jones told selectmen Tuesday.

Structural damage was done to an interior support wall at the station, he said.

“I’m not a mason, but it is my understanding the whole wall will need to be replaced,” Jones said.

The town’s mechanic, Bob Merrill, backed the truck into the station after servicing it at the highway garage across the street and struck the wall, Town Manager Martin Puckett said.

Jones estimated damage to the 1981 pumper truck at between $3,500 and $5,000. Both the station, which had no cost estimate for repairs, and the truck are covered by insurance, Puckett said.

Two fire trucks are parked side-by-side in two front bays in tight quarters at the station.

A tanker that arrived earlier this year was built bigger than the ordered specifications and can’t fit in a front bay so it is parked in the side bay. That required another truck to be parked in the front bay.

Selectman Ernie Souther asked since the wall needs to be repaired if it would be better to increase the bay size while the work is being done.

Jones said the only thing that might be done is to make the bay longer due to space constraints at the station. There is only about 3 inches between the side mirrors of the two trucks parked in the front bays and about 8 inches between the wall and the back of those trucks and less than a foot in front, Jones said.

It would be up to the new chief and the department to figure out what would work best, the out-going chief said.

“I think it’s a good idea. I just think they need to take a look at it,” Jones said, to determine if it were feasible.

Jones, who is leaving to become a full-time fire chief in New Hampshire, said firefighters held an election to fill the assistant chief position, which would become vacant once assistant Chief Marvin Parker becomes fire chief.

There were four candidates and the election ended up in a tie between two candidates.

Firefighters then chose between those two candidates and Mark Chretien was elected, Jones said.

Selectmen voted to appoint Chretien as assistant chief as of June 3.

In other matters, the board signed an agreement to participate with Maine Power Options, a Maine Energy purchasers consortium where companies bid to provide fuel in bulk.

The agreement is for $4.059 a gallon for heating oil, which will be provided by C.N. Brown, and $4.295 per gallon of diesel, provided by Dennis K. Burke Oil Co. for the highway department, Puckett said.

The oil bids were based on nearly 16,000 gallons of oil to heat the municipal building, library, fire station, public works garage, sewer treatment office and sewer treatment plant.

The diesel bid was based on 10,500 gallons.

Puckett said the town will look at options to conserve heating oil, including going to four, 10-hour days at the municipal building to stay within the proposed budget for fuel.